District 15-5A DI was the first to kick off district play in the Rio Grande Valley last week, and 16-5A DI is set to join the mix as both leagues deliver primetime matchups in Week 4.

15-5A DI
WESLACO EAST AT PSJA MEMORIAL

The nine-team District 15-5A DI features seven playoff qualifiers from a season ago, which turns this year’s race for a top-four spot into a marathon.

The seventh-ranked Weslaco East Wildcats (3-0, 1-0) are off to a hot start and coming off a dominant 26-0 win over Donna High in Week 3. The Wildcats limited Donna to just 14 yards of total offense and East’s tandem of runners — senior Margarito Pompa and freshman Malachi Rodriguez — ran wild in the win.

Pompa leads the Wildcats with 389 rushing yards, 122 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 50 touches this season. The freshman athlete, Rodriguez, has lined up at quarterback and in the backfield and posted 342 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 55 carries.

Linebacker Kyle Garcia and safety Greg Granados lead the East defense with 32 and 26 tackles, respectively. They’ll be tasked with matching up against a PSJA Memorial team that likes to pound the rock itself.

The Wolverines (1-1, 0-0) are coming off a bye week and will have had two weeks to prepare for their meeting with the Wildcats. Their most recent action was a 36-28 win on the road against McAllen High on Sept. 5 as running back Emi Colunga erupted for 189 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Senior quarterback Ryan Reyna added 93 yards on the ground with one rushing touchdown, and senior receiver Robert Moralez chipped in with 70 total yards and a score on four touches.

Defensively, senior linebacker Diego Villegas leads the Wolverines in stops with 20 tackles in two games, and senior defensive back Exzayveon Banks is a threat in the secondary with 13 tackles, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

Kickoff between the Wildcats and Wolverines is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at PSJA Stadium in Pharr.

16-5A DI
EDINBURG VELA AT MISSION HIGH

District 16-5A DI competition kicks off this week and begins with a matchup of two teams inside the RGVSports.com 5A/6A Top 10 rankings featuring No. 2 Edinburg Vela visiting No. 8 Mission High.

The SaberCats (3-0, 0-0) proved they’re still one of the big dogs on the block by taking down last week’s No. 2 team, Harlingen High, 34-16 at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen in the RGVSports.com Game of the Week.

Edinburg Vela’s offense continues to improve each week, and now the SaberCats are ripping off chunk plays in bunches. It starts up front with a strong offensive line in the trenches that opens up room for running back Jonathan Flores. The senior back ranks sixth in the RGV in rushing yardage with 568 yards and seven touchdowns on 68 carries. That creates opportunities for senior quarterback Geoffrey LeFevre (648 passing yards, four touchdowns) to hit playmakers on the outside in senior June Garza Jr. (245 yards, three touchdowns) and junior Jay’r Guevara (174 yards).

The SaberCats’ defense also flexed its muscle in the win over Harlingen by holding its third straight opponent to less than 17 points. Safeties Luis Garcia and Derek Rodriguez are solid on the back end, and the Vela front seven has played tough to slow opposing rushing attacks.

Mission will be standing on the opposite sideline on its home field of Tom Landry Stadium, looking to pull off an upset.

The Eagles (2-1, 0-0) have won tight games against an intra-city rivals and dropped a close one against Weslaco East by a field goal. Still, Mission High has the pieces to push fellow 16-5A DI teams Vela and McAllen Memorial for a district title.

The Eagles have displayed a balanced attack this season with experience at the quarterback position in senior third-year starter Diego Salinas and weapons in the backfield and on the perimeter in Mission’s spread attack.

Salinas ranks second in the RGV in passing yards with 740 and seven touchdowns through three weeks. Senior running back Thomas Aparicio has been one of the area’s best with 410 rushing yards, and pass-catchers Yandel Barrera, Christopher Kirk and Shelby Sital can hit the big play at any moment.

Mission’s defense will be tested against Edinburg Vela’s ground game, but the Eagles have held two spread offenses to 22 points or less in their wins against Mission Veterans and Sharyland High with junior linebackers Jonathan Kader and Jose Sanchez leading the charge.

The SaberCats and Eagles are slated for a 7:30 p.m kickoff Friday at Tom Landry Stadium in Mission.

Brownsville Pace running back Adrian Sauceda has gotten off to a sensational start to the 2024 Texas high school football season, and his Week 3 performance has earned him RGVSports.com Football Player of the Week honors.

Sauceda finished with 302 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns in a 44-42 Vikings win over La Joya High last Friday in La Joya.

The senior turned 17 carries into 230 yards and four rushing touchdowns, and he also caught three passes for 72 yards. The Vikings improved to 3-0 on the year with their Week 3 victory.

Sauceda is now up to 697 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 78 carries with six receptions for 85 yards. He leads all Rio Grande Valley running backs in total yardage this season.

Brownsville Pace is back in action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Veterans Stadium.

MISSION — Friday night’s non-district matchup featuring Mission High against Sharyland High started off as a shootout with a combined 44 first-half points scored between the two.

In the third and fourth quarters, however, the Eagles were the team with all the firepower on their side as Mission prevailed 36-22 over the Rattlers on Friday at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission to close out non-district play.

“We had a talk with them at halftime and they responded well and I’m proud of them for that,” Mission head coach Danny Longoria said. “The fact that we put two great quarters of play together defensively and offensively, we cleaned up a lot of things we did incorrectly, and I’m proud of them. They came out swinging.”

Five different Eagles hit pay dirt in the win while the Mission defense pitched a second half shutout after entering the locker room tied at 22.

“I’m just super proud of our team. It was a close game at halftime, but our coaches told us let’s keep going and that’s what we did and we came out victorious,” Mission quarterback Diego Salinas said. “It feels good having those weapons, the speed that we have and the play-calling, too.”

The Rattlers dug themselves out of an early hole to start the shootout. Sharyland defensive back Jose Vega ended Mission’s opening drive with a red zone interception and was tackled at the 1-yard line.

The next snap, Sharyland’s first offensive play of the evening, was a handoff in the end zone and Mission defensive lineman Elian Garcia was quick to pounce with a tackle for loss to cause a safety.

The Eagles kept the pressure on with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Salinas to receiver Christopher Kirk on the next possession for a 9-0 Mission lead.

The Rattlers shook off the slow start and scored back-to-back touchdowns on an 8-yard quarterback keeper by Calvin Harris and an 8-yard pass in the right flat to Francisco Gomez to race ahead 14-9.

Mission answered right back with the next two scores to make it a 22-14 game as running backs Richard Acevedo and Thomas Aparicio found the end zone on runs from 2 and 37-yards out, respectively.

The Rattlers responded with a little trickery on a double pass throwback as Harris took the snap in shotgun, lateralled the ball to Santiago Longoria to his right who threw it back to Harris. The Sharyland quarterback caught the ball and out-ran everybody down the left sideline for six. Longoria converted the two-point conversion on a shovel pass from Harris to tie things up just before the half.

The Eagles’ offense soared with two big plays in the second half and used a heavy dose of Aparicio to put the game away. Salinas threw deep down the left sideline to receiver Santiago Gonzalez, who caught the pass and broke two tackles before running into the end zone. The Eagles then forced a punt and used a jet sweep to Shelby Sital for a 67-yard touchdown run for a 36-22 advantage.

“Next week, going into district with two tough teams, teams are going to see on film that every guy is a weapon. Not just me, not just Shelby, not just Yandel, everybody is a weapon on offense,” Aparicio said.

Mission added a pair of red zone stops in the second half to keep the contest a two-score game with a turnover on downs and a fumble forced by Roel Martinez and recovered by Jonathan Kader.

“It helps to be able to distribute the ball to the great kids we have. I just think coming into district play next week against a very tough opponent, this was a must-win for us and we responded well, I believe,” Longoria said. “I think offensively, we played well. Defensively, we created turnovers when we needed them the most and I think that was a great job by our defense because Sharyland is a tough team. Coach (Craig) Krell does a great job and has a great team and best of luck to them.”

The Eagles (2-1) move on to District 16-5A DI play next week and open against the Edinburg Vela SaberCats (3-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Tom Landry Stadium in Mission. The Rattlers (1-2) will look to bounce back with another non-district test against PSJA Southwest (0-3) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission.

Upper and Lower Valley powers are set to square off in Week 3 as the No. 4-ranked Edinburg Vela SaberCats collide with the No. 2-ranked Harlingen High Cardinals in the RGVSports.com Game of the Week.

Kickoff between the Cardinals and SaberCats is slated for 7 p.m. Friday at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.

Both teams are off to 2-0 starts and enter this week’s matchup fresh off a pair of rivalry wins.

Harlingen High held off crosstown rival Harlingen South to take this year’s Bird Bowl by a score of 29-24 in Week 2. Cardinals’ junior running back Noah Huerta ran wild for 218 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries in the win over the Hawks.

Edinburg Vela, meanwhile, picked up back-to-back wins over Edinburg North and Edinburg High to start its 2024 campaign. SaberCats’ senior running back Jonathan Flores had another big game with 199 rushing yards and two scores in their Week 2 victory over Edinburg High.

The two tradition-rich programs will look to establish the run as the Cardinals and SaberCats take the field for a Friday night dog-fight in Harlingen.

Week 2 of the 2024 Texas high school football regular season is in the books and it has resulted in a shakeup in the latest RGVSports.com 5A/6A Top 10.

Last week’s No. 2 and No. 3 teams — Brownsville Veterans and PSJA High — both suffered losses leading to Harlingen High rising to No. 2 this week following the Cardinals’ 29-24 win over Harlingen South in this year’s Bird Bowl. Los Fresnos, Edinburg Vela, McAllen Memorial and Edcouch-Elsa also moved up in the ranks, while Brownsville Lopez and Weslaco East are the two newest teams to enter the top 10.

In the Sub-5A ranks, Rio Hondo lost an overtime battle against Port Isabel to slide out of the top four while Santa Rosa and Santa Maria take over at No. 3 and No. 4. No. 1 Brownsville St. Joseph, meanwhile, is coming off an impressive upset victory over the 5A/6A No. 2 team Brownsville Veterans.

The Coastal Bend top 4 poll saw minimal change, with the top three teams all remaining the same. New to the mix is Corpus Christi Veterans and Tuloso-Midway coming in tied at No. 4

Check out the rest of this week’s rankings below.

5A/6A Top 10
Rank	Team	Record	Last Week
1	PSJA North	2-0	1
2	Harlingen High	2-0	4
3	Los Fresnos	2-0	5
4	Edinburg Vela	2-0	6
5	PSJA High	1-1	3
6	McAllen Memorial	2-0	7
7	Brownsville Veterans	1-1	2
8	Edcouch-Elsa	2-0	10
9	Weslaco East	2-0	NR
T10	Brownsville Lopez	2-0	NR
T10	Harlingen South	1-1	8

Sub-5A Top 4
Rank	Team	Record	Last Week
1	Brownsville St. Joseph	2-0	1
2	Port Isabel	2-0	2
3	Santa Rosa	2-0	T4
4	Santa Maria	2-0	T4

Coastal Bend Top 4
Rank	Team	Record	Last Week
1	Corpus Christi Miller	2-0	1
2	Flour Bluff	2-0	4
3	Calallen	2-0	3
T4	Corpus Christi Veterans	1-1	NR
T4	Tuloso-Midway	2-0	NR

PHARR — The No. 1 PSJA North Raiders extended their regular-season winning streak to 22 and head-to-head winning streak against crosstown rival PSJA High to five after a 21-11 victory on Friday at PSJA Stadium in the RGVSports.com Game of the Week.

The Raiders improve to 2-0 overall while the Bears drop to 1-1.

“I was actually very impressed with their defense holding us down. They’ve done a great job the last three years — it’s been tougher and tougher each year to move the ball and score points against them,” PSJA North head coach Marcus Kaufmann said. “That defense, they’ve done a great job on that staff over there and done some things that were hurting us. Offensively, we were scared because they changed some of their schematics on offense and we were worried about it a bunch, and we were able to take care of business just from the sheer aggressiveness of our kids playing really hard.”

Raiders’ quarterback Daren Garcia accounted for two first half touchdowns on a 1-yard sneak and an 8-yard pass to Diego Aparicio near the right-front pylon for a 14-0 PSJA North lead at the break. PSJA North defensive back Jason Almanza also came up with an interception in the end zone to shut down a PSJA High drive in the first.

The PSJA High defense bottled up PSJA North for the majority of the second half with the exception of one big play that ended up being a back-breaker.

Raiders’ back Ethan Guerra exploded for a 60-yard rushing touchdown that started off left tackle before cutting back to the right for the score. He exited PSJA North’s Week 1 contest but was healthy enough to give it a go in the rivalry game against PSJA High and came through for his team.

“I told my boys I’d be ready to come back and ready to practice this week. I came out here and did my best for my boys,” Guerra said. “We came in here ready to go, hyped up. I told my boys we had to win this game, because if they would have won we’d never hear the end of it, so I told them let’s go, gotta keep pumping our legs and get that scoreboard up.”

PSJA High trailed 21-0 before getting on the board with a third quarter safety after the snap on a PSJA North punt attempt sailed over the head of the Raiders’ punter and eventually out of the end zone to make it 21-2. The Bears found a bit of offensive rhythm late as senior quarterback Myles Lopez connected with receivers Ryan Vallejo and Caleb Salas to keep the chains moving.

That led to a 30-yard field goal from Izael Alavarez and a 9-yard touchdown pass from Lopez to Salas with 5:48 remaining in the fourth.
That’s as close as the Bears would get, however, as the Raiders picked up key first downs late to ice the game.

Next for PSJA North (2-0) is the start of District 15-5A DI action with a road game against Donna North (0-2) at 7 p.m. Friday at Bennie LaPrade Stadium in Donna.

PSJA High (1-1) will look to bounce back next week against Mission Veterans (0-2) at 7 p.m. Friday at Tom Landry Stadium in Mission.

“We got to get healed up. We’re pretty beat up from the last two weeks playing two juggernauts, so we need to get well and get ready for district,” Kaufmann said.